Screenland (Nov 1937-Apr 1938)

D O YOU know what I miss the wood ? Smorgasbord and snow !" Garbo gave her low deep laugh and looked round at the icy Swedish landscape, her golden head bare in the bitter wind, her sea-blue eyes sparkling with happiness. Slender as one of the frosted birches she stood there like a triumphant Northern princess in her black cloth coat, severely tailored without any touch of fur, ;i white silk scarf swathed carelessly round her throat. In tier arms she held the great sheaf of flowers presented to her by the Captain of the "Gripsholm" before she left his ship to tread on her native soil again. When Garbo goes home she is always treated as the truly great lady she is and she responds with gracious charm. She travelled as "Mr. Jonas Emersen" but a message of welcome and polite entreaty to the stateroom brought her out to smilingly acknowledge her identity and talk to reporters and pose for photographers without hesitation. Gaily and courteously she answered the hail of questions — this lovely star whom Hollywood finds so shy and secretive! "No, of course there is no Mr. Emersen. Please do not credit me with still another romance. I assure you I am not going to marry anybody at present. Do I think that marriage and film work can be successfully combined? I have never considered it but I imagine it would depend entirely on the person one married. No, I am not going to make a film in Europe. I have come for a holiday and to see my family, nothing else. Yes, I would probably mOSt III Holly Arriving at Gothenburg, below, Garbo gaily answered reporters questions, posed for photographers. Contrary to published stories picturing her as depressed and pessimistic, Screenland gives you the Gorbo her family and friends in Sweden know. Acme act in a Swedish film if I ceased working in America but that will not be yet a while. Yes, I have seen man)' of the English films and I think the historical ones are by far the best. 'Rembrandt' and 'Fire Over England' were excellent. Flora Robson was magnificent as old Queen Elisabeth. I would have been very proud to give such a performance myself. No, I am not going to play Joan of Arc. Has that silly story got to Europe too? It is so idiotic! "I am tired of period pictures and I want to do something modern now. My next film is to be a comedy, as I expect you know. Will I be allowed to keep my lover in it ? Certainly I am hoping so! Don't you think it is high time they let me end a picture happily with a kiss ? I do. I seem to have lost so many attractive men in the final scenes !" It was nearly an hour later when Garbo took smiling farewell and entered the train at Gothenburg docks for the last stage of her long journey to her country home at Haarby near Stockholm. This is the first time Garbo has seen it though she sent the money from California so that her mother and brother could buy the little Swedish manor-house set in its farmlands and groves of larches, birches, firs, and summer poplars. It is typical of the land, a low cream-walled house with its wooden shutters and pointed roof gables picked out with touches of glowing color, green and scarlet and turquoise blue. When Garbo . came home the snow-covered drive from the road to the arching door was illuminated by dozens of torches and the curtains of every window were drawn back so that the lamps could shine brightly out. 23